1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to powered hand saws with movable blade guards and more particularly pertains to a new saw guard system for enhancing the safety of use of powered hand saws by eliminating the need to hold the blade guard in a static position during the cutting operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of powered hand saws with movable blade guards is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,813 describes a assembly for automatically raising a lower saw guard. However the disclosed system uses a plurality of teeth on an interior surface of the lower guard allowing debris to be caught between the saw blade and the lower guard increasing a chance of injury or binding of the saw. Another type of powered hand saws with movable blade guards is U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,705 which is activated with the same trigger mechanism that engages the saw increasing a likelihood of accidental starts of the saw when attempting to raise the lower guard.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a system that increases the safety of operation with a separate activation for the lower blade guard, and a drive assembly which is not prone to catch debris.